I also think it’s unfair that contemporary Hindus are bullied to go on the defensive whenever caste is mentioned. After all slavery is frequently mentioned in the Biblical scriptures, but we don’t think of it as a Jewish or Christian problem.

Like or Dislike: 0  0

Like or Dislike: 0  0

poor..rich…working class…upper class..middle class…white …black..asian.. etc. etc.
i hate self hating hindus or indians…wake up …western liberalism is a joke as well as western conservatism…stop emulating the worst of the west!!

parents …children …etc. etc. the list of caste designations go on…alpha males ..on and on…read a book !!! then speak on matters!

Like or Dislike: 0  0

Like or Dislike: 0  0

Like or Dislike: 0  0

@Neo : Dude.. I’m taking up too much of your comment space.. I’ll dial down.. from after this post

@Kislay Chandra
Dude.. Let me say this, because no one else will…. you are a racist and a despicable person.

Anyone who agrees to an arbitrary classification of humans that lends to discrimination.. based on gender, color, religion, sexual preferences or profession or any such made up criteria is a low life.. you may not agree.. but I think you are a slimy slug.

The caste system was discriminatory from the get go.. rigid or not.. actually there is considerable evidence that it evolved along ethnic lines.. if you are blind to that and argue that it has purely professional – fraternal origins.. I have news for you dear.. you are a dumb fuck.

You wrote:
“Come on . It was just a division of labor , another name for what your profession . Now , it is of no use , except to politicians .”
It’s people like you that minimize and sanctitize an abhorrent system that have kept it going.. the ones who come out right and proclaim their love for it are easily identified as monsters, but your kind will doggedly follow and keep such systems going. You’ll engage in your war of minimization to wear people down.. much like those that deny the holocaust today. After all if you say it enough times.. someone’s bound to believe you. There are enough dumb fucks around.. keep the fire burning!

You said:
“You say as if thousands of years ago , some wise Hindu men and women had a meeting , in which they decided to introduce the caste system”
and
“The caste system was not rigid . It became rigid later . ”

First off.. they were not wise.. they were people just like you and me.. and everyone else. bunch of power hungry money grabbing ass jockeys. Men have always been that.. hungry for power, pussy and money.

And since you have such difficulty grasping simple concepts.. let me infantilize and elaborate the slavery example:

Slavery did not come about because some *people* got together and decided it was a nifty idea to buy and sell humans.. it fell together as a result of war (spoils of war) and lending practices (pretty cool if you could sell your sister, you could buy her back when the crops are harvested, after all cash is king!). Pretty soon the system evolved to full fledged slavery and laws were put in place to protect the rights of slave owners… screw the slaves!

You see the very origins of slavery were terrible(ideas).. it devastated a continent and that continent never recovered completely. It had such deep consequences that it will forever be associated be negative stereotyping and the resultant consequences.

The caste system in India/hinduism was not the result of “wise hindu men and women” getting together to form one, at least I’m pretty sure women were also treated like shit back then.. cook, clean and spread your leg.
It came about as a result of war, subjugation and forceful containment. It was already abhorrent when the first person used a caste name to describe another.. it formed the basis for the mess we have today.

It is the same thing as calling a person of latin origin a wetback or some one of east indian origin a macaca. You have to nip such things in the bud.. not codify into religion.

But I guess you’re one of those racist types who’ll never understand why it was (still is) horrible to call a black person a nigger.. after all it was/is a nifty name to describe black negros eh?
Only now has it become a rigid derogatory epithet.

For defending the caste system ( in any form ).. you are a pretty disgusting person.

PS: Ask me how the caste system impacts taxation and why Indian tax revenue is measly.

Like or Dislike: 0  0

And how does my logic say that Slavery is good or Nazism is good ?
The caste system was not rigid . It became rigid later . Nazism and Slavery were bad ideas since the begining . Casteism was not even introduced as an idea . We gave it a name and a form years after it took shape and became a part of the system .

And once again, the present form of Casteism sucks, hard !

Like or Dislike: 0  0

Thanks for pointing it out. will keep an eye on your blog..

Like or Dislike: 0  0

You say: “If we follow your logic.. we could explain slavery, the KKK or Nazism as darn good ideas gone bad.. betcha there is tons of literature from those times explaining the “good” in them…”

It may not surprise you but yes, some academics (at the NBER no less) have had a go at explaining the virtues of the KKK. I blogged about it (http://tinyurl.com/87saj8) and asked the obvious next question – when will be Al Qaeda’s turn to be celebrated as the exemplar with the same virtues? As they say, time wounds all heels and sometimes it heals all wounds.

Indeed, Hitler came to power using the flaws of democracy. In 1933 elections he polled 37% of popular vote and then made deals, legitimised with the fancy name of ‘coalitions’, to become Chancellor. Democracy in this form continues to exist in the world’s largest and/ or best-known democracies.

I am not disagreeing with your views on the caste system. Just adding that many institutions and established and accepted practices legitimise things that are clearly not useful and definitely wasteful. If we must do something, then we must challenge – or mock – the works that seek to confer legitimacy on clearly abhorrent institutions/ practices even if those works are carried out by NBER people.

Like or Dislike: 0  0

If we follow your logic.. we could explain slavery, the KKK or Nazism as darn good ideas gone bad.. betcha there is tons of literature from those times explaining the “good” in them… but the truth is they were evil systems of control so the ones in power could stay in power and wealth at the expense of everyone else.

It was a system that came about because few wanted to control many and wanted to remain in power and wealth in perpetuity. It still is such a system..

There are parallels else where in the world too.. the feudal systems in Europe for one.
The key differentiators between those and the one we are stuck with.. are that the Indian/Hindu system was codified in religion and the sheer time that it was allowed to survive.
Lets face it.. our gods and goddesses are a bunch of racist bigots.. these are the idiots we idolize and worship.. to explain human rights or woman’s rights to ardent believers is going to be really really hard..

Every other such system experienced internal revolts and changes – The french revolution, the october revolution, the American revolution (debatable) and Civil war (debatable)…. unfortunately the Indian/Hindu Caste system did not.. there were some lame protests.. but that was that.

Because so many pussy foot around it.. I take the opposite and a very dim/stark view of it… I’m not religious.. I didn’t invent it.. so to hell with having to analogize for and sugar coat it… it was evil and repugnant from the day it came together about time folks in India call it just that and be done with it.

Like or Dislike: 0  0